Monday, May 04, 2009

Pima electeds ask Sheriff Dupnik to apologize

11 federal, state and local leaders today asked Dupnik to say sorry to south side residents.

TUCSON -- I joined a letter organized by my Congressman, Raul Grijalva (D-AZ7), voicing concerns with Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik's recent anti-immigrant, anti-southside statements. I respect Dupnik, but I am concerned with his comments and wanted to join other leaders in asking for fairness. The letter was sent to Dupnik today, and is included in full below.

Sheriff Dupnik -- Due to your long history of involvement and commitment to the entire community, we were surprised by your comments in the print media. Children attending schools, regardless of their immigration status, are not the cause of our problems, nor should we publicly target them. We have an obligation to protect those who cannot protect themselves. It is our responsibility to ensure that our children are always safe and secure. All children are vulnerable and we must protect them like they were our own.

It is wrong to force teachers and school administrators to become immigration officers. We remind you to uphold the law that was established by the Supreme Court ruling, Plyer v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202 (1982). This case established that children, though not citizens of the United States, are considered a “person” and therefore, protected under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

An additional cause of grave concern were your unsubstantiated charges that 40% of students in the Sunnyside School District are “illegal” and linking the Southside as the primary source of all crime in Pima County. These false charges are inflammatory and prejudicial. Your comments only further divide our community and debase a large part of the population.

The Pima County electorate trusted you to protect and serve our community, not to humiliate and instill fear. Every child is entitled to an education regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation and status.

We urge you to apologize for your ill-advised comments and join us in a rational and honest discussion about solving our problems together.

1 comment:

Apologize for what? Telling the truth about a situation. This catering to illegals is getting way out of hand.

You are also forgetting our population is a bit different than it was when our ancestors came to this country. Our quality of life is different are so are the demands to keep it.This has nothing to do with the contributions of our ancestors it has everything with where we are here and now. How many times do you hear how great things were in the good ole days. One of the reasons you things were so great was there were less people to put demands on everything around us.Illegals are not the ultimate cause of all of our societies problems, but they are a contributing factor to issues, such as education, wages, crime, and even cultural isolation. I am not saying we should not let people immigrate to this country, but we should at least control the valve that allows them to flow in. We are already flooded in case you did not know. Thanks for the list. Now I can be extra sure who not to vote for next time.